The Saskatchewan Rattlers have had the Stingers’ number in the Canadian Elite Basketball League all summer long, handing them half of Edmonton’s six losses during the inaugural season.

Saskatchewan added one more — this one when it counted the most — as the host Rattlers mounted a second-half comeback for a thrilling 85-83 victory in CEBL championship weekend semi-final action Saturday at SaskTel Centre.

With the win, the Rattlers now advance to the first-ever CEBL championship final to be played Sunday afternoon, at 4 p.m., at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

‘This is a great atmosphere, especially with the fans,” said Rattlers 6-foot-10 forward and player of the game Marlon Johnson, who sparked his team’s comeback Saturday with 17 points, eight rebounds, one steal, one blocked shot and one assist.

“I want one (championship) for myself. I’ve never won one, ever. It’d be great.”

Saskatchewan will play the Hamilton Honey Badgers, who upset the No. 1 seed Niagara River Lions 104-103 in Saturday’s other semifinal.

“The CEBL brass instructed me to make the game exciting, so we felt we did that a little bit and then make our comeback,” quipped Rattlers head coach and GM Greg Jockims dryly.

“No, often the fourth quarter, down the stretches, is the players’ time. You try to get them out in the right spot, but, ultimately, you’ve got to make some plays and Marlon had a nice transition finish off an alley-oop, then he made a big three to basically give us enough spread to have to hold on at the end. We could have defended a little better. Moon, the MVP of the league, made a really tough three at the end and we were trying to defend that coming out of the timeout.”

The Rattlers rebounded from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter, outscoring the Stingers 25-17 in the fourth period.

“They kind of figured us out a little bit and they’ve given us tough games before,” said Stingers head coach and general manager Jermaine Small, whose team came into the championship weekend as the No.2 seed with a 14-6 record while Saskatchewan entered at No. 3 with a 11-9 mark.

Grandy Glaze was the top scorer for Edmonton with 17 points. CEBL all-star Travis Daniels had 16 points and a game-high 13 boards. Jordan Baker, runner-up for CEBL Canadian player of the year, added 13 points and five rebounds.

“I think the home crowd definitely gave them a boost, for sure,” added Small. “When you look at the fouls, we take 14 (free throws) and they got 35. Tip the hat off to them. They were aggressive and draw a lot of fouls, but, if you look at a few slats, you kind of feel a little bit slighted, but, you know what, I give them credit. They played well and they played with great energy. And I think, in some possessions, they just wanted it more.”

In the first half, Edmonton was getting second and third chances in the offensive end. Saskatchewan cleaned that up.

“Our rebounding was probably the biggest difference from the first half to the second half,” noted Jockims.

“They had 11 offensive rebounds at the half and they only got five more … (Defensively) we got very disruptive and got them out of their stuff.”

Neither team appeared to be wanting to make any shots at the start of the game. Edmonton opened up missing its first six attempts. Saskatchewan hit only two of nine shots, just one of seven tries from beyond the arc.

The Rattlers took a five-point advantage and led by three, 20-17, after the first quarter, but, from there, the Stingers took over with a dominant second quarter.

Edmonton out-scored Saskatchewan 38-28 in the second frame to take a 49-41 half-time leading by as much as 12.

Twice in the third quarter, the Stingers built up 12-point cushions but the Rattlers went on a 8-0 run to close within four before Edmonton closed out the quarter up by six, 66-60.

Saskatchewan regained lead for the first time since early in the second quarter, with 7:21 left in the game, when Shaq Keith got the hoop and the harm for a three-point play. It was a see-saw battle from there.

Saskatchewan would take the lead for good on an alley-oop play to its big man, Johnson, with a little over a minute to play. Johnson later knocked down a three-pointer for good measure to make it 84-80 with 37.4 seconds left.

A three-pointer by CEBL MVP Xavier Moon, with 30.2 seconds on the clock, made things interesting but Keith drew a foul with 4.6 seconds remaining and his team killed off the clock.

“It was a beautiful game to watch,” said Small. “Those kind of games show the parity in the league. Whether you’re first or second or third or fourth seed, there’s a lot of parity in the league. I’m glad we gave the fans a good game. It just shows that, when it really comes down to it, the game’s about inches. If you have a little slippage, teams make you play.

“I’d be lying if I wasn’t saying it was a disappointing finish, we got here and we got better. We’ve got a core group of guys I’m pretty sure will be back. We’ve just got to keep building and keep trucking. I’m optimistic about the future of this group.”

The Rattlers move on to the final after taking care of the Stingers yet again for the fourth time in five matches, even though it wasn’t looking so promising at half-time.

“We just talked and really locked down together and said, look, we’re just going to focus on defence and whatever happens on offence happens,” noted Johnson.

“I was just locked in on defence. I’m kind of mad I didn’t get (CEBL) defensive player of the year, so that took its toll on me. I just locked in and got everybody together and we got it done tonight.”

Next up is Sunday’s final.

“It’s so important to set this game aside as quickly as possible,” stressed Jockims. “These guys know what they’re doing. My job is to just remind them.”

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